Emma Swan- Head Injury Collector
by Ms.Informed13
Summary: "It took a few days for the large purple bruise to go down, but when it eventually did, Emma was right back to coaching as soon as she could be. She never did get Regina to wear the baseball cap that season, but she did get her first concussion." Fluffy oneshot of Swan Queen. Emma seems to be a magnet for injury, and coaching Henry's baseball team doesn't help the situation.


**A/N- Hello all, this was inspired by a Criminal Minds Jemily fic by a similar name, though the two stories are nothing alike... No matter, hope you enjoy this. It's just a fluffy sweet Swan Queen short and sweet thing!**

* * *

Regina readjusted her sunglasses on the bridge of her nose as she regarded the players on the field before her. The bases were loaded, and the final batter was up- it was the top of the ninth and a situation that would make any baseball fan salivate- that is if the left fielder wasn't picking weeds, and the if any of the players were over three feet tall.

As it were, Regina was not on the edge of her seat in anticipation, rather she casually leant against the armrest of her folding chair and whispered under her breath to her best friend- Kathryn, "I'll bet you five bucks this kid knocks the tee over."

The blonde rolled her eyes at her friend's antics, "You're on."

Regina smirked and refocused her attention on the field. Sure enough, seconds later, the rubber tee came crashing to the ground and the coach set about readjusting it, "Pay up." The brunette held her hand out expectantly until Kathryn slapped a bill in it.

She folded it up, but didn't slip it into the pocket of her skirt quite yet. Indeed, even at her son's t-ball game, Regina Swan- Mills was in a button up and pencil skirt. Emma had tried to bribe her wife into wearing a red baseball cap like the kids had, but the brunette refused. The closest she got to showing team spirit was that her blouse was crimson to match the boy's jerseys.

A ping sounded, and reflexively both women brought their hands together to cheer on the pint sized batter. All the players ran the diamond until they crossed home plate, and the teams retreated to their dugouts to swap between fielding and batting.

Kathryn wasn't prepared to let her money go so quickly, and she was soon leaning in to bait her friend, "Five bucks says my son will hit the ball farther than your son."

"Deal."

Regina knew that her son, Henry, would be lucky to get the ball to roll past the pitcher's mound, but she accepted the bet anyway as the red team took up their bats and the other team took the field.

A loving smile crossed the brunette's face as she watched her wife walk up to the home plate, juggling three softballs easily in an attempt to show off. Kathryn nudged her friend watching the coach, "Who knew she was so good with her hands?"

Regina blushed deep red and elbowed her friend right back, but chose not to dignify the joke with a response.

Kathryn's son, Nolan was up to bat first. Emma put a softball on the tee and stepped back. Nolan wound up, his small features scrunching up in concentration as he brought the bat around as hard as his six year old arms would allow- right into the center of the tee. The black rubber flopped to the ground and the ball rolled about a foot away before coming to rest in the dirt.

"Who knew tee ball could be such a lucrative pastime?" Regina joked as Emma reset the ball on the tee so the boy could try again.

"Remember, keep the end of the bat up." Emma advised as the small boy took his aim and swung again- right into the tee. Emma swooped in again quickly, too quickly it would seem as Nolan brought his back bat hard to reshoulder it, catching Emma right in the forehead with the aluminum.

The woman staggered back two steps before falling flat on her ass, on hand clutched over her forehead. She had a stunned expression on her face, and nobody said a word, until Nolan couldn't stand it, and the little boy burst into tears.

The tantrum drove Regina and Kathryn back into action, the women were up in a second and running along the fence to the dugout. On the field, Regina sprinted to her wife, and Kathryn to her son.

"Emma, baby, can you hear me?" Regina asked, her hand overtaking the blonde's over the injury.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

Regina managed to pry her hand's fingers away from her forehead to examine the wound, already the area covering the right side of her head was raised and becoming a dark angry purple, "You're not fine. You probably have a concussion."

It took a lot of convincing and a small amount of threatening, but eventually Regina got her wife to go to the hospital where it was confirmed that she had a minor concussion. Even more difficult than getting the blonde to go to the hospital, was getting her to adhere to the bedrest the doctor prescribed.

It took a few days for the large purple bruise to go down, but when it eventually did, Emma was right back to coaching as soon as she could be.

She never did get Regina to wear the baseball cap that season, but she did get her first concussion.

* * *

"Is Emma pitching overhand?" Kathryn raised a skeptical eyebrow as she watched the blonde on her knees on the pitcher's mound.

Regina fought to prevent her eyes from rolling as her wife got set up for the first inning, "She's convinced that if she gets the boys used to it now, they'll be hitting home runs by the end of the season."

"She does realize that they're seven, right?"

The brunette nodded, picking at the sleeve of the three quarter length baseball t-shirt Emma had conned her into wearing, "She was strategizing all through breakfast. It's the first stage in her four year plan to cultivate the next generation of MLB stars."

All of the other coaches in the coach pitch league had their kids hitting lofty arches that were thrown at speeds as slow as humanly possible, but not Emma. The first batter up was one of the Tillman twins who had been on the team from the beginning a few years ago.

Emma set her knees slightly apart to have a solid base as she pitched from the short height to ensure she would hit the little kids' strike zones. She wound up, and threw the first one at just under the speed as she threw when she pitched for the annual Storybrooke softball benefit game.

The Tillman boy missed the first and second pitch, but the third was a solid hit right back towards the pitcher's mound. Emma fell forwards as quickly as she could, throwing her glove up over her head as the ball sped past where she had just been situated. The boy dropped the bat and sprinted to first base.

After the applause from the parents died down, Emma deemed it safe enough to pop back up onto her knees and resume her pitching. The front of her team shirt was totally covered in dirt, but she wore a large smile as she saw that her player had made it safely on base.

Kathryn and Regina were doing little to contain their laughter as the next kid stepped up to bat. The first few innings passed in relative ease until the boys were up to bat again, and Henry took his place at the plate.

"Lift the end of the bat up higher, Hen." Emma called from her knees at the pitcher's mound.

The boy did as directed, and promptly missed the first pitch. The second one was closer, and the third one was a solid foul chipped off along the first base line.

With two pitches left, Kathryn leaned over into her friend's space, "Three bucks says Emma slows down her pitch so Henry can hit it."

"No way." Regina refuted, "She knows he can do it, they were out in the backyard all day yesterday. Almost took out my kitchen windows."

The fourth ball flew by just as fast without the boy making contact. On the fifth one, Emma didn't let up on the speed, and Henry finally hit a slice of it. One second everyone was shocked, and the next, Regina was on her feet to cheer on her son.

Emma, however was still stuck in the shocked phase as the ball sailed right at the blonde's head. She tried, to hit the dirt like she had last time, but she didn't move fast enough. The ball impacted her right above her left eye. Henry dropped the bat in shock, and Regina froze.

She watched in stunned silence as her wife landed hard on her side, knees already pulling up to her chest as she tried to curl in on herself. Regina and Kathryn were having flashbacks to this same time last year as both women sprinted around the fence and onto the field.

Just as last year, Kathryn went to comfort the kid (even though this year it wasn't her own) and Regina dropped to her knees beside her wife.

"Emma, are you alright?" She had one hand cupping her wife's cheek, and the other running up and down her bicep.

The blonde just groaned as she tried to pull her knees into herself, "Em, dear, how's your vision?"  
Regina didn't forget the warning the doctors had given following Emma's first concussion, and she knew the first things she needed to check were the blonde's vision and memory.

"I'm ok." Emma tried to insist.

Regina caught sight of a small line of blood escaping between her wife's finger's. Upon closer inspection, she saw that the stitches on the ball must have split the fair skin of the blonde's forehead open upon impact.

"No, you're not."

"Yes I am." Emma still hadn't opened her eyes more than her right eye a tiny crack.

"You need to go to the hospital."

"No I don't." The blonde was acting as petulant as their son.

"Can you get up?"

"Yeah." Emma tried unsuccessfully to push herself to her feet, she made it to a sitting position before the dizziness took over and she had to clutch onto the mayor to ensure she didn't fall flat on her back again.

"That seals it, we're going to the hospital."

Just over an hour later, Doctor Whale confirmed that Emma had indeed gotten her second concussion in two years. The cut over her eye from the stitches in the ball scarred over and left her with a small puckered mark just at the end of her eyebrow.

* * *

The next baseball season passed without incident, though Emma couldn't avoid the inevitable injury jokes which seemed to follow her everywhere.

When she was climbing a tree to rescue Ashley's cat, the younger blonde asked if Regina let her get that high off the ground without a helmet. During the winter when she took Henry sledding on the large hill behind the school, Leroy asked if she was allowed to participate in such a dangerous activity without full body padding.

Everything seemed to settle in by the following summer, that is, until the week of the Miner's Day festival. It was the Saturday before the festival when Regina and Emma stopped into Granny's Diner for lunch- Henry was enjoying the summer weather with some friends at the park. The argument began hushed, but nobody in the crowded diner missed it.

"No way in hell, Swan." Regina whispered furiously across the table.

"Come on, it's just one game. What's the worst that could happen?" Emma tried to convince her wife.

The brunette rolled her eyes, "The worst that could happen? Permanent brain damage, memory loss, vision loss, death!" With each item on her list of disasters, Regina's voice rose until she was practically shouting the last bit.

"You know Doctor Whale just said half of those things to scare me." Emma stabbed her straw a little too forcefully into the bottom of her milkshake in a show of petulance.

"I don't care, Emma. You've had two concussions in the last three years, you're not playing in the game next week. End of discussion."

Regina accentuated her point by pushing up from the table and shouldering her purse. She knew that Emma wasn't finished with her milkshake or her fries, but the brunette's cheeks were heating up under the realization that conversation in the diner had ceased as everyone watched their drama unfold.

"I'm not a child. You can't just order me around, Regina."

"I'm not ordering you to do anything. I'm looking out for your safety!"

Emma chuckled and quirked an eyebrow at her wife, "Or are you looking out to defend your title?"

Regina gasped at the insinuation. City Hall and the staff at the local school always played together on one softball team against the Sheriff's department and the Fire Department. The softball game was the grand finale to the Miner's Day festival, and the mayor's team had won the last five years. They were looking to get their sixth in a row.

"My team will wipe the floor with yours whether you play or not! I resent that you would think I would put my pride above your safety."

With that, Regina swept from the diner, not expecting her wife to follow. The other customers remained quiet for a moment until Leroy whispered across the counter to Ruby, "I'll bet anything our girl still get's on the field next week."

The waitress glanced at Emma who was sitting with an unreadable expression sipping the last of her milkshake, "I don't know, I'm not sure even she can withstand Regina's wrath this time."

* * *

In the end, Leroy was right. Against Regina's protests and near constant nagging, Emma was set on playing. So it was with reluctance that the mayor and sheriff walked together to the softball field at the high school at the end of the Miner's Day festivities.

Emma readjusted her blue baseball cap down over her eyes as she and Regina stopped in the middle outside of the field before they would have to part ways and go to their respective dugouts.

"You're absolutely sure about this?" Regina asked for the dozenth time that evening while she scanned her wife's eyes for any sign of apprehension.

"Absolutely positively sure." Emma confirmed. She took the brunette's smaller hands in her own and rubbed her thumbs over the backs of them in reassurance, "I'm going to be fine. It's just a friendly softball game. It's not like Sidney is going to get a line drive at my head."

Regina's expression didn't lighten at the sheriff's attempt at a joke- Sidney had yet to hit a ball in all the years of the softball game.

"I would feel better if you would at least let someone else pitch for you."

"You and your whole team." Emma smiled, "You know nobody throws a slider quite like me."

"Nobody but me." Regina smirked, they were each pitchers for their respective teams, "But really, dear, if you get another head injury I'm wrapping you in bubble wrap."

"Don't worry, you've always said that I'm hard headed."

"Emma, I'm serious." Regina stole one of her hands away from the blonde to carefully cup her wife's cheek, "Be careful."

"I will."

Regina pushed an escaped bit of hair behind the sheriff's ear before leaning up to connect their lips in a chaste kiss.

When she pulled away, she had a reluctant smile, "I love you."

"Love you too."

At that point, Kathryn and David sidled up to the couple. Kathryn was totally decked out in red with her cap, socks, jersey, and even face paint under her eyes like a football player. David was more reserved in his blue with just a cap and his team shirt. The two were the only other couple split between the two teams as Kathryn was a teacher and on Regina's team and David the head of the Fire Department playing first base on Emma's team.

"Hey, no fraternizing with the enemy!" Kathryn joked as she rubbed her friend's back in greeting, "Let's go get ready." The blonde suggested, already half dragging Regina away to their dugout.

"Be careful, Emma." She warned one last time, shooting a meaningful look over her shoulder at her wife.

The first couple of innings went off injury free. Emma still insisted on pitching as Regina knew she would. The only close call came when Mary- Margaret on the red team got her first hit in the third inning, she was so surprised with the hit that she initially forgot to run- only taking off when her team yelled at her to do so.

The hit was a lofty ball directed right back at the pitcher's mound. Emma looked up, squinting against the bright lights of the stadium as she backed up to get under the ball. She tripped over her own feet just as she caught the ball and landed in a heap.

Regina held her breath until Emma's gloved hand shot up triumphantly with the ball clutched tightly. The rest of the blonde followed shortly after, covered in dust and a goofy grin.

The mayor rolled her eyes at her wife's childish antics as Mary- Margaret jogged back to the dugout with a ridiculous smile, still incredibly proud that she managed to get a hit despite not making it on base.

The next issue arose in the bottom of the sixth inning, Emma was pitching, and Regina was up to bat. The blonde had yet to strike her wife out, despite Regina managing to get her out twice. The pressure was on as she threw her first pitch, it was a little high and outside, but still within her wife's smaller strike zone. Regina swung and barely missed.

The second pitch was another strike that the brunette managed to just barely get an edge of, sending a high foul along the third baseline.

Emma paused before throwing her third strike. She held the ball in her glove, and turned to the rear under the guise of talking to her second baseman before bending over to get a bit of dust on her sweaty fingers. As she did so, she made sure to bend at the waist so that her assets were clearly on display in her tight white softball pants for her wife.

She was pleased that when she turned around she caught the mayor staring. Emma rose a single eyebrow in question to which Regina just smirked and wiggled her bat in a silent challenge.

Winding up, Emma let loose on her third pitch. It was her infamous slider, but Regina was expecting it, and they both knew it would be a solid hit before the bat even connected with the ball.

What they didn't expect was for it to shoot right back at the pitcher's mound. Regina froze in the middle of her run to first base as she saw her wife bend over forwards. She held her glove hand to her abdomen a moment, the other resting on a knee, before she gave in and dropped hard onto all fours. Emma coughed shortly before she crumpled to the ground, Regina changed direction immediately, dropping down next to the blonde.

"Shit." She cursed, throwing off her batter's helmet, and inspecting the sheriff for damage, "Emma, where were you hit?"

Regina began carefully palpating her wife's head through the cap, relieved when Emma didn't release a pained hiss at any point during the exam.

All Emma did was clench her eyes shut, and breath heavily through her pain, though Regina couldn't pinpoint the source of the damage. The mayor was just glad that her wife wasn't curling in on herself, and it seemed that her head was safe this time.

Regina ran a reassuring hand up and down Emma's arm and carefully stroked her forehead, "You need to use your words, dear. Where does it hurt?"

Finally, Emma cracked an eye open to regard the brunette, "Stomach." She managed to grit out.

Regina wasted no time in lifting her wife's shirt, not caring that most of the town was sitting in the bleachers beside the stadium or that all of the players had congregated on the field and were watching with concern. Doctor Whale came jogging out onto the field from the stands just as Regina edged her wife's shirt up to the bottom of her sport's bra.

The injury was clear, a nasty red circle marked the spot that had been hit, right in the center of Emma's abdomen at the bottom of her sternum.

Doctor Whale joined the couple in the dirt and lightly palpated Emma's stomach. Regina watched with worry as the blonde's abs would contract in her efforts to not hiss in pain. After a moment, Whale drew his hands back, "The good new is, I don't think you've broken any bones or sustained any serious internal damage." He smiled reassuringly, "Bad news is, you're going to have to sit the rest of the game out, and I had twenty bucks on you striking the mayor out at least twice."

Emma grinned at the joke though it ended up looking more like a grimace.

"Here, let's get you back to your dugout." Regina nodded to David to help her heft the blonde to her feet. Each one wrapped an arm securely around Emma as they steered her off the field.

"You're officially never setting foot on a baseball diamond ever again." Regina said as they neared the dugout.

"But that wasn't a head injury." Emma protested weakly.

"Doesn't matter."

"And you caused it."

"I'm pretty sure it was your fault."

Emma knew her wife was just overreacting because she was scared, she also knew that she would get nowhere trying to argue the point further right now.

Regina and David set her down carefully on the bench and Ruby showed up moments later with a bag of ice which Regina held against the forming bruise.

"Does that feel better?" Regina asked while Emma leant her head back against the cinder block wall of the dugout with her eyes closed.

"Mhm." The sheriff hummed, "Stay here with me?"

"Of course, dear."

The teams returned to their previous positions, David taking over for Emma on the pitcher's mound, as the blonde nuzzled her face into her wife's neck. She allowed herself to just be held, a show of vulnerability she normally reserved for when they were alone.

Kathryn stepped up to the plate, determined to get on base with her husband pitching, only for the man to look around with a confused expression.

"Has anyone seen the ball?"

"Oh about that." Emma smirked, opening her gloved hand and pulling the bright ball out. She had managed to trap it between her abdomen and glove when she fell to the ground. Now the blonde touched it lightly to Regina's arm, "You're out."

* * *

**A/N- Tell me what you thought, would you like more short snapshots like this or should I focus on my numerous unfinished multichapter fics?**

**Have a great day :)**


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